1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying, and in particular to a method for manufacturing array substrate with embedded photovoltaic cell.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal display (LCD) has a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and is thus widely used. Most of the LCDs that are currently available in the market are backlighting LCDs, which comprise a liquid crystal display panel and a backlight module. The operation principle of the liquid crystal display panel is that liquid crystal molecules are interposed between two parallel glass substrates and the liquid crystal molecules are controlled to change direction by application of electricity to the glass substrates in order to refract light emitting from the backlight module for generating images. Since the liquid crystal display panel itself does not emit light, light must be provided by the backlight module in order to normally display images. Thus, the backlight module is one of the key components of an LCD. The backlight module can be classified in two types, namely side-edge backlight module and direct backlight module, according to the position where light gets incident. The direct backlight module arranges a light source, such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED), at the back side of the liquid crystal display panel to form a planar light source that directly provides lighting to the liquid crystal display panel. The side-edge backlight module arranges a backlight source of LED light bar at an edge of a back panel to be located rearward of one side of the liquid crystal display panel. The LED light bar emits light that enters a light guide plate (LGP) through a light incident face of the light guide plate and is projected out through a light emergence face of the light guide plate, after being reflected and diffused, to thereby transmit through an optic film assembly and form a planar light source for the liquid crystal display panel. However, there is only about 6% of the light emitting from the backlight source that can transmit through the liquid crystal display panel. This cause a waste of a large amount of light energy.
A liquid crystal display panel is generally composed of a color filter (CF) substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, and liquid crystal (LC) and sealant interposed between the CF substrate and the TFT substrate. A general manufacturing process comprises a front stage of array process (including thin film, yellow light, etching, and film stripping), an intermediate stage of cell process (including bonding TFT substrate and CF substrate), and a rear stage of assembling process (including mounting drive ICs and printed circuit board). The front stage of array process generally makes the TFT substrate for controlling the movement of liquid crystal molecules. The intermediate stage of cell process generally introduces the liquid crystal between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate. The rear stage of assembling process generally mounts the drive ICs and combining the printed circuit board to effect driving the liquid crystal molecules to rotate for displaying images.
A photovoltaic cell is a device that directly converts photo energy into electrical energy through photoelectrical effect or photochemical effect. To improve the utilization of light from the backlight module of a liquid crystal display device, those skilled in the art include photovoltaic cells in the liquid crystal display panel. The photovoltaic cells absorb excessive photo energy and convert the photo energy into electrical energy to power components or accessories of the liquid crystal display panel. Photo energy emitting from the backlight source can thus be fully used and the consumption of external power sources can be reduced.
However, the current manufacturing techniques only work to integrate already-manufactured photovoltaic cells with the liquid crystal display panel. The manufacturing process is complicated and the manufacture cycle is long, so that the manufacture cost is increased.